Worker bees cleaning bodies of queen, drones, or other workers. Also refers to workers grooming their own body (for example removing pollen grains) and bees grooming sisters of parasitic varroa mites.
Grooming behavior of honey bees can be considered to fall into two major categories: autogrooming (or self-grooming) and inter-bee grooming, called allogrooming. Allogrooming can be one-on-one or social, involving several nest mates acting collaboratively. Workers groom other workers, drones, and the queen (the latter for example when the queen retinue forms around a queen). Autogrooming means worker cleaning of antennaeantenna:
paired, slender, and jointed segmented appendages on the bee head; primary taste, touch and smell receptors. Antennation refers to how bees interact using their antennae to communicate various messages such as food exchange and distribution of queen pheromones.
(with use of special hairs on their front legs) or foragers cleaning pollen grains from their body hairs after foraging on a flower.
Grooming is also a means by which worker bees reduce mite predation. Workers groom the mites from the bodies of their sisters. A breeding program that originated in 1997 at Purdue University has developed a stock line of workers that bite the legs from varroa mites, leading to their bleeding to death. Stock was tested by several Indiana and Ohio beekeepers, and a cooperative of Heartland Bee Breeders was established to further develop and distribute this stock. This stock has higher numbers of groomers that remove mites from honey bee bodies. The stock is termed "mite biters" (or simply "biters" or "ankle biters").
queen retinue, hygienic behavior
Cini A, et al. 2020. Increased immunocompetence and network centrality of allogroomer workers suggest a link between individual and social immunity in honeybees. Scientific Reports 10 (8928). https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-65780-w
Pritchard D. 2016. Grooming by honey bees as a component of varroa resistant behavior. Journal of Apicultural Research 55 (1): 1–11. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00218839.2016.1196016
Purdue University. n.d. Our Breeding Program. Purdue University. Accessed 2024. https://extension.entm.purdue.edu/beehive/our-breeding-program/
